Saturday morning...

While lisa and the cap'n are hiking to the top of El Bejucho, katie and I are chillin' riverside. It's only 11am and I've already taken a nap!

Let me see if I can remember some of the hilarity of the week so far.....

Upon arrival on Wednesday, we loaded up immediately and began a cruise along the south shore of the island with plans to anchor close to Pigeon Cay. But as the sailors know, the best laid plans usually change with the winds! So, we anchored at Port Royal for the evening and cooked lobster pasta on the boat. On the ride there, both the little girls sat on the back steps with their feet dangling in the water giggling like first graders! (I was catching up on rag magazine reading that they brought with them!!...priorities, don'tcha know?!) Once we had arrived at destination, plans were to snorkel, so on goes the globs and globs of sunscreen. Then they sat on the tramps with a cold one and that was as far as the snorkeling went! We all sat out there telling stories and being in awe of the starlit sky until way after dark. Alot of this time, the cap'n was inside doing ALL the cooking!! After dinner, we had the Comedy Hour. Ala, clisa....the sailor woMAN!

She brought sailor hats for all of us, including crafting supplies to decorate them. um...we haven't gotten that far yet! And she brought pirate patches and towels and oh geeze.......so much stuff. She checked it all in a body bag for travel! And the tattoos. Of course, the tattoes and we had mucho fun with those!! Pics will definitely be going out to WA and ID of those!! (Big T!!!)

Thursday morning after coffee and sausage and grits, the sails fly up and away we go...

A beautiful, perfect day for a sail. Great breezes, crayon blue sky and of course, we were going in the best direction, heh!! We anchored at Fantasy Island for a beach day. White sand, I think I counted 5 different colors of blue water, palapas .... what more could one ask for? Oh, how 'bout a cap'n that goes back to the boat and makes us homemade nachos with local tortillas, beans, cheese with pepperoni....and luv?????! So. Fun!

As the day winds down and we've just heard the bar play Blew Bayou on their radio, we head back for the boat. Cruise back to the marina for the night because we're leaving for the mainland early in the morning and the baby, boat, will be safe there. A taxi ride to the ferry at 6:30 am and quite a commotion trying to get sophie jane on the ferry WITH me and not in the cargo area.

Ugh. No dogs allowed in the boat with the riders. After much 'discussion' with the authorities and their going to talk to the owner of the ferry! it looked bleak. My friends have to know how much I wanted them to have this lil adventure, because at one point, I turned to the cap'n and said, "Just put her in there". Meaning in the cargo hold. With tears in my eyes. And then, all of a sudden, they walk out and say "ok". We go back thru the security check and it's like all of a sudden there is no dog and we walk right onto the boat. Whew! And she rode just like a baby in her carryon all the way to La Ceiba!!

Adonai picks us up at ferry dock and drops us off at the mercada. We walked all thru the area with Katie's eyes about to pop out of her head at every turn. Dried fish, fresh fish, fresh meats...meaning, liver, tripe, kidney and the like... hanging with their smells wafting throughout our nostrils.........!! All the while, sophie is on my back in her backpack and every kid there patted her or pulled my back, laughing 'perrita' !! Cap'n hollers out "Fried Chicken" and we stop for lunch. O.M.G. Just watching those two look at each other when they saw where we were going to sit down and eat was priceless.....suffice it to say that it was definitely a local 'restaurant'!! Chicken, beans, fried plantains, cheese and tortillas! DEEElish!!

After we had thorougly explored the markets, we hit a bakery for some breakfast items for next morning.....lisa was dying seeing the sandwiches WITH mayonnaise just sitting out on the counter in the heat!!....and last stop was, of course, the tamale stand!

On to the mountains and the Villas Pico Bonito! My heart smiled so warmly when lisa turned to me in the car and said, "Thanks for bringing us to the river!" Makes all the planning and all the anticipation of hoping they'll have a good time worth every second!!

Our 2 bedroom villa is beautiful. But we were hot, so we hit the pool for naps!! Swimming and watermelon drinks with a few monkey la-la's thrown in.....a hike to the short waterfall.....a swim in the river. Ahhhhhhhhh....and just when I was going to say a perfecto day.....I remember the shower! Lisa has brought the sweetest smelling stuff to bathe with and we all had long, leisurely showers that made us smell like fleurs!! Dinner at the restaurant here...bruschetta, pork chops, shrimp, and mauhi-mahui! So, at this point I would say it was a perfect day but alas one more thing takes it over the edge.........they saw LIGHTENING BUGS for the first time ever!! And you would have thought they'd seen Santa on his sleigh in the sky!! And we found out that our good friend, jules, gave birth to a healthy baby boy this day.

So, yeah..............NOW, I can honestly say it was a perfectly perfect day in Honduras!!

oops, here come the hikers.......Back later for pics and more hilarity!!

Oh Boy......as our friend, Antoni, and taxi driver would say. We are back on Blew Bayou now after a very rough ride back across the ocean on the ferry. 1 1/2 hrs of windy, rough waters and some of us got just a leetle bit seasick. Poor, poor clisa.......she hiked to the top of the waterfall this morning, has a cough and a bit of a cold.......and then...the ferry ride. Oh Boy. Let's just say it was one she will never forget. I was miserable and had stomach cramping so bad from the motion of the ocean and nerves that well, Oh Boy. But Katie? Strong, brave and smilin' all the way back across. She and the cap'n have gone to have dinner while the other two weinies stay onboard. Sweet lisa is in the bed looking for a long night of sleep.....

I'm sure days...no. Make that weeks from now, we'll all have a good laugh about the adventure this afternoon and appreciate the memories that were made in LaCeiba!

(trying to go thru pics to decide which ones to put here, but now I realize I have to wait till another day to get permission before I do it..............oh my! you know what that means!!)